Israeli Poetry: A Contemporary Anthology (review)

Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 100 Reviews tutes the body of the monograph, is the description and exploration of the field of meaning of a given term or phrase in light of comparable passages in Jeremiah and elsewhere. In relation to the "confessions," Bak seeks to show how a late postexilic cumulation of motifs related to the theme of innocent suffering coalesces into these poems which portray those who lament as legitimate successors of the true prophet. In sum, Bak has made an informative contribution to the understanding of a central element in the book of Jeremiah. Wolfgang Roth Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Evanston, IL 60201 ISRAELI POETRY: A CONTEMPORARY ANTHOLOGY. Warren Bargad and Stanley F. Chyet, eds. and trans. Jewish Literature and Culture. pp. 273. Bloomington: Indiana University, 1986. Cloth, $29.95 I Paper, $12.50. This luminous anthology of eleven contemporary Israeli poets, from Amir Gilboa (born 1917) to Yona Wollach (born 1946), whose oeuvre extends nearly over the first forty years of the State of Israel, is a superb achievement. Its value is enormous both for those who read the original texts and also for the "generally uninitiated audience" (p. 9), whose needs are met admirably throughout the work. The concise "Introduction," which treats the emergence of Israeli poetry against the background of modem Hebrew literature that arose in the Diaspora from the late eighteenth century, is studded with valuable insights, often epigrammatically expressed. The struggle of modern Hebrew authors to assert secular belles lettres in the old-new language fraught with religious norms and tradition often proved "surpassingly bitter and complex" (p. 2). The Hebrew literature of the Yishuv (the pre-state community) in general, and poetry in particular, though "much less exotic, much less eccentric " than Diaspora Hebrew creations and "a much more organic growth" (p. 3), faced formidable struggles that continued well beyond statehood (1948). These center on the efforts to achieve distinct and individual voices and to integrate modernity while facing "the numinous past, the sacred history of the Jews," commonly regarded as an Cam segulla "a God-chosen community" (p. 5). Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 101 Reviews Pointed characterizations of the greatest literati, from Tchemichovsky and Bialik through Alterman and Zach, prepare the ground for the contemporary poets of this volume. While those of the 1950s and 1960s sought "the possibility of a poetic style unencumbered by cultural influence," Israeli poets since then have approached poetry as a "pluralistic venture, a means of personal artistic statement" (p. 9). The editor-translators have striven so to encompass the selection of poets as to offer a group "representative of Israeli poetry in its artistic achievement, its varied styles, and its literary history" (p. 9) since the 1940s. One may here and there regret the omission of a favorite poet or the limitation to two women, but as the authors candidly explain, this is a personal and representative, not a comprehensive, selection. It is also multum in parvo of an intelligence and depth everywhere apparent. Each poet receives a considerably larger exposure (sixteen to eighteen pages on the average) than is common in most anthologies. The introduction to each sets forth the particulars of biography and the circumstances of history and culture out of which his or her oeuvre grew, together with an acute characterization of the poet's persona and linguistic and stylistic techniques, a brief discussion of imagery and contexts, and a capsule evaluation. Somewhat more leisurely in pace than the general introduction, these prefatory words are illuminating and original. The editor-translators' sustained and intense knowledge of all the poets is manifest in each selection, which is comprised of those poems the translators found both "most engaging" (p. 9) and most susceptible for technical reasons (e.g., the use of free verse) to direct and forceful translation. Within each section, a chronological presentation allows the reader to experience the poet's "creative development and changes" (p. 10). Moreover, the individual poems have been drawn from nearly every published collection of each poet, including many poems never published previously in translation. Each version is the work of both co-editors. The anthology thus achieves not only "a purposeful artistic control" (p. 10), but an...